Ruth Messinger, Mandy Carter and Community to discuss LGBT Progress, Work Ahead

The LGBT Institute, which launched early September 2015, will host its first major event, “The Global-Local Connection for LGBT Rights” on Monday, Nov. 2 at 6:30pm at the Center for Civil and Human Rights in Atlanta. The event, hosted by Ruth Messinger, President of American Jewish World Service, and national civil rights leader, Mandy Carter, is a call-to-action for community members to help shape the LGBT Institute’s research agenda.

Attendees will discuss the unique challenges and opportunities facing LGBT people in the South and around the World and explore the LGBT Institute’s three areas of focus: education and employment, public health and wellness, and criminal justice and safety. Attendees will also have the opportunity to join stakeholder groups that will work collectively on these areas, providing input, feedback, and thought leadership.

“We’re proud to have Ruth Messinger and Mandy Carter join us. They will help us set the stage as the LGBT Institute delivers on its promise of shining a light on issues that don’t often get a platform,” said Dee Dee Chamblee, who is a member of the institute’s programming board.

Carter will provide a regional and national perspective to the night’s convening, while Messinger will give global context to the current state of LGBT rights. Carter was one of the co-founders of the North Carolina-based organization Southerners on New Ground (SONG) which builds the LGBTQ movement through leadership development, intersectional analysis, and organizing.She also helped create the National Black Justice Coalition.

“Our LGBT community, at home and abroad, is facing a pivotal moment. Despite recent legal gains, there is still much work to be done. The LGBT Institute provides a unique opportunity for us to be bold and layout an agenda that seeks to provide voice for those most often marginalized within the LGBT community,” stated Carter.

As the fourth largest U.S. funder for global LGBT rights, AJWS provides significant financial support to LGBT activists in Asia, Africa, Latin American and the Caribbean, who are working to ensure that LGBT people are not persecuted for who they are or whom they love.

“As Jewish global citizens, the persecution and oppression of LGBT communities here and around the world is at the top of our agenda because our values and our history as a persecuted minority compel us to stand up for others whose human rights are threatened,” said Messinger. “I cannot think of a more fitting place to have a conversation on local and global LGBT rights than the LGBT Institute at the Center for Civil and Human Rights.”